I've alway shad a passion for speculative fiction, but recently I've been working on building up my collection and experiencing everything I can. I've already got several under my belt:
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The once and Future King - T.H. White
The Wheel of Time - Jordan
Thomas Covenant Series - Donaldson
A Song of Ice and Fire (unread, but bought) - Martin
The Ender series - Card
Dune - Herbert

What I need are any suggestion for well written literate fantasy (no D&D) that I won't find plastered all over Amazon and the like. I've heard good things about The Saga of Recluce and The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Thanks!

Just fantasy, no sci-fi?

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Prince of Nothing trilogy by R. Scott Bakker
Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by by Michael Swanwick
The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
Last Call by Tim Powers
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
The Scar by China Miéville
Territory by Emma Bull
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories of Fritz Leiber
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Thanks Greyweather, I'll put these on my list. I've heard great things about some of these, especially Tigana, and some are totally new. I'm concentrating on fantasy for now, but I've enjoyed some sci-fi like Orson Scott Card and Heinlein and I'm always up for something good.

Mercedes Lackey has a series called "Elemental Masters". They call it a series because the books share a theme, Elemental magic, but they are all standalone stories. My favorites in the series are The Serpent's Shadow and The Fire Rose. They both have very strong female characters.

Try The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.. Tremendous work, literate, multilayered and brilliantly written.

Paul wrote: "Try The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.. Tremendous work, literate, multilayered and brilliantly written."

I second that suggestion!

For the literary end you should try Peakes 'Gormenghast' or for something a little more pulpy (but no less fun)try Joe Abercrombie's 'Best Served Cold'

The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is an unusual fantasy set in Santa Cruz, with both Wstern and comic books influences.

Two novels that have less standard "fantasy" elements but lots of food for thought are Freedom and Necessity (historical with lots of philosophy) and The Raw Shark Texts (contemporary with lots of linguistics and theory).

Pat Murphy's Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell has interesting quantum physics stuff but I wouldn't call it literary.

The Raw Shark Texts was a very good book.

Freedom and Necessity is written by two authors who are independently excellent and so it doesn't surprise me to hear that their coproduction is great as well.

Gene Wolfe's fantasy is among the most masterful writing of the 20th (and now 21st) century. Check out his Book of the New Sun Tetralogy, or Latro in the Mist/Soldier of Sidon, or Pirate Freedom, or Wizard Knight. Each is narrated from a unique voice, and none are like the other.

Wolfe satisfies those looking for masterful fantasy and those looking for masterful writing and literary depth.

As an AP Literature and Composition teacher, I make it my business to find great writing--this is great writing for any genre.

I hope you'll try my own books:

The Flame in the Bowl Unbinding the Stone
A Warrior Made

Shipwreck1969 wrote: "Gene Wolfe's fantasy is among the most masterful writing of the 20th (and now 21st) century. Check out his Book of the New Sun Tetralogy, or Latro in the Mist/Soldier of Sidon, or Pirate Freedom, ..."

Wolfe is definitely one of the best, and I second the suggestion of his Book of the New Sun.